Since boron and carbon are neighbors in the periodic table, their atoms are comparable in size, and their electrons occupy the same 2s and 2p electron subshells. Each of these atoms has a helium core, with boron's outer electrons being 2s2 2p1, and carbon's outer electrons being 2s2 2p2. This similarity induced scientists to look for large molecules composed of boron atoms; namely, boron analogues of Buckminsterfullerene, colloquially called, buckyballs.

Some other elements have been found to form smaller-sized buckyball-type molecules. These are gold, tin and lead, but only boron has formed a many-atom cage-like structure similar to the sixty carbon atom Buckminsterfullerene (C60).[4] computer simulation of theoretical boron cage structures showed that clusters of forty atoms were unusually stable. More than 10,000 arrangements of forty boron atoms bonded to each other were simulated.[5] There were two stable arrangements. One was a nearly flat molecule, but the other approximated a sphere with simple geometricalfacets.[4]

"This is the first time that a boron cage has been observed experimentally... As a chemist, finding new molecules and structures is always exciting. The fact that boron has the capacity to form this kind of structure is very interesting."[5]

Borospherene is a cluster for 40 boron atoms forming a hollow, cage-like molecule.